Nitrogen plasma treatment of zno and tio2 nanowire arrays for polymer photovoltaic applicationS

Abstract

This work reports on a simple, yet unique approach to improving the opto-electronic properties of vertically-aligned arrays of rutile TiO2 and Wurzite ZnO nanowires by means of controlled nitrogen doping during exposure to highly kinetic radio-frequency generated N2 plasma radicals. Morphologically, the plasma treatment causes a distortion of the vertical alignment of the nanowires due to a dissociation of the weak Van der Waals force clustering the nanowires.